Follow Up: What I'm Doing about my Last Post

Follow Up: What I'm Doing about my Last Post

Negative thinking is dangerous. After my last post about how hard the job market is right now, I slumped into a mini-depression and my thinking spiraled down the Negative Tunnel. Not good.

To get out of these spirals, I recommend changing something. You could change your outfit, your activity (take a walk?), setting, volume (scream “STOP!” at yourself), or even your mind.

I chose to change my setting: I went to the library!

This did not get me out of my bad “I’ll never find a job!” mood–at least not until I got back from the library with six books, three about urban planning, and three about job-hunting. Here’s the one that helped me immediately.

The career services at my college quoted this book in one of its handouts. It follows the patterns of many career-help books by helping you find your skills, etc., but the way it’s written changed my pattern of thinking about job-finding. The routine I’ve sunken into for finding jobs isn’t bad, but it hasn’t worked yet and there are still many other tips to try. For someone like me who isn’t specialized for a specific job, it helps me learn the vocabulary to talk about myself to employers. Though I don’t have a ton of work experience, I do have skills that I’m sharpening every day just by living my life to its fullest.

See? Wasn’t that more uplifting? What’s going on in your mind and spirit is more important than your wallet.